I cover demographic, social and economic trends around the world. I am the R.C. Hobbs Professor of Urban Studies at Chapman University in California and executive editor of newgeography.com. My forthcoming book, The New Class Conflict, will be published by Telos in September.

The Hollow Boom Of Brooklyn: Behind Veneer Of Gentrification, Life Gets Worse For Many

While artisanal cheese shops serve the hipsters and high-end shops thrive, one in four Brooklynites receives food stamps.

After a decade of increasingly celebrated gentrification, many believe Brooklyn — the native borough of both my parents — finally has risen from the shadows that were cast when it became part of New York City over a century ago. Brooklyn has gotten “its groove back” as a “post-industrial hotspot,” the well-informed conservative writer Kay Hymowitz writes, a perception that is echoed regularly by elements of a Manhattan media that for decades would not have sullied their fingers writing about the place.

And to be sure, few parts of urban America have enjoyed a greater public facelift — at least in prominent places — than New York’s County of Kings, home to some 2.5 million people. The borough is home to four of the nation’s 25 most rapidly gentrifying ZIP codes, notes a recent Fordham study. When you get a call from the 718 area code these days, it’s as likely to be from your editor’s or investment bankers’ cell as from your grandmother.

Yet there’s a darker side to the story. This became clear to me not long ago when driving with my wife and youngest daughter to a friend’s house in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush, one of the finest exemplars of urban renaissance in the country. We encountered a huge traffic jam on the Belt Parkway, so we exited on Linden Boulevard. For the next half hour we drove through an expanse of poverty, public housing and general destitution that hardly jibes with the “hip, cool” image Brooklyn now projects around the world.

Overall, despite some job gains, the borough’s unemployment rate stood at 11 percent this summer, up from 9.7 percent a year ago and well above the national average. Much of recent job growth has been in lower-wage industries, notes Martin Kohli, chief regional economist with the Bureau of Labor Statistics in New York City. Despite a much celebrated start-up scene, some 30,000 of the 50,000 jobs created since the recession have been in the generally low-wage health care and social assistance sector, with another 9,000 in the hospitality industry.

So what’s going on here? Urban historian Fred Siegel, a longtime Brooklyn resident, sees a classic tale of two cities. “Brownstone and Victorian Brooklyn is booming,” he says, due in part to uncle Ben Bernanke‘s inflationary policies, which have bailed out the Wall Street banks whose profits are the bedrock of New York City’s prosperity. This money has now spread to those parts of “Manhattanized” Brooklyn closest to the core of the Big Apple, with bankers, lawyers and the like opting to settle in more human-scale neighborhoods.

But lower middle-class Brooklyn “is pockmarked with empty stores,” Siegel notes. With its once robust industrial- and port-based economy shrunken to vestigial levels, opportunities for Brooklynites who lack high-end skills or nice inheritances are shrinking. Some other areas, like Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay, have been revived through immigration.

Jonathan Bowles, president of the New York-based Center for an Urban Future, sees a divide between, on the one hand, “the creative class” and some immigrant neighborhoods, and on the other, “the concentrated poverty” in many other struggling areas like Brownsville (where my mother grew up) and East New York. “There are clearly huge swaths of Brooklyn where you don’t see gentrification and there won’t be anytime soon,” Bowles observes.

Part of the problem is structural. Many of Brooklyn’s working-class commuters — particularly in the eastern end of the borough — depend on a transit system designed to funnel people into the giant office clusters of Manhattan. Those left looking for work in the borough, often in low-paid service jobs, face long commutes or have to get a car, a big expense in a city with ultra-high rents, taxes and insurance costs.

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Because simply put, Queens is ugly. Though gentrification has hit LIC and Astoria, both due to their proximity to Manhattan.

LIC as far as I know, is the only area in western Queens with Brownstones and there aren’t that many. LIC was mostly industrial just like its Williamsburg counterpart on Brooklyn river. And just like Williamsburg, LIC is heaping the rewards of condo development.

The rest of Queens is pretty much run of the mill apartment buildings and houses mostly occupied by immigrants from Latin American and poor countries. You won’t see beautiful Victorian houses and mansions from the late 19th century like in Brooklyn.

The only area I deem lovely is Jamaica Estates and quite frankly, its too far.

“The rest of Queens is pretty much run of the mill apartment buildings and houses mostly occupied by immigrants from Latin American and poor countries.” Spoken like a true hipster or yuppie. Lol. Are you originally from Brooklyn? I bet you’re not. Or else you’d know that about 10 yrs ago, much of Brooklyn was described in the same manner. Brooklyn is now considered cool because of these gentrified areas of Brooklyn, that are really only a small portion of Brooklyn. Go to Canarsie, Bay Ridge, Sheepshead Bay, Coney Island, Mill basin or Bergen Beach and you won’t see Victorians and Brownstones. You’ll see homes that look very similar to some areas of Queens. These are the areas of Brooklyn that most hipsers don’t even know exist. Ten years ago Ft. Greene was known for its projects. Now, an ordinary working class person would never be able to afford the rent. Ditmas Park, Brooklyn (Victorian Homes) is a strange mix of hipsters and poor, west indian and latino blue collar and unskilled laborers. As a Brooklynite, what pisses me off, is that these people and neighborhoods of Brooklyn have become invisible. And when people mention Brooklyn, they only think of North Brooklyn. I would hardly call Queens ugly. There are many beautiful areas of Queens (Forest Hills, Jamaica Estates, Briarwood). But they are just not Hipster friendly. Which is why I moved there. Astoria is a nice “cool” part of Queens. LIC will always be an industrial looking place that I can just never get used to. Woodside and Sunnyside are also nice areas.

You’re obviously a transplant who likes Brooklyn Brownstones because you’ve been programmed to do so. You like their facades and high ceilings because that’s what HGTV and Spike Lee movies have taught you. Have you ever lived in one? They’re appallingly narrow and light starved in the center, not to mention ergonomically and thermally inefficient. They were designed for the societies and technological resources of two centuries ago and have little to offer someone today besides status as a tenant/owner or money as a landlord.

” You won’t see beautiful Victorian houses and mansions from the late 19th century like in Brooklyn.”…?

Queens has many beautiful single family neighborhoods. The eastern portion north to south has many Tudor and ranch style homes on 40×100 lots. It’s not far, I can see a poster hasn’t really gone to Queens. Most folks commute via Long Island rail road out there because the stations are spaces like the subway. You can get to penn station from any part of eastern queens in under 30 minutes. Queens also lacks the housing projects Brooklyn has. It’s truly NYCs best kept secret.

It would be appropriate the next time Joel Kotkin visits Brooklyn, if he steps out of his car and walks around a little. He might find a richer and more diverse landscape than his “windshield” inspection provides.

His review of the great borough is hollow in and of itself, notwithstanding his schmaltzy incantation of his parents and the liberal sprinkling of Yiddishisms.

After endless decades of media disparagement, it is refreshing the Manhattan media (like Forbes) is taking notice of the big changes taking place in Kings County.

Mr. Kotkin’s article is unbalanced, and superficial, like any “windshield inspection.” I hope Forbes has the guts to hire someone not afraid to get out of their automobile and walk around; kick the tires; talk to people. The magazine and its readers will be richly rewarded.

yeah, I remember the good ol’ days in Brooklyn too… The CRACK, The CRIME, The Burned out Buildings! I could go on and on. Are lower income people feeling the squeeze? Of course, they always are! The reality is that the economy is slowly picking back up. Neighborhoods that were once negletced are getting re-made. It’s a normal cycle, SOHO was a shithole in the 60′s too. So was the W. Village and the meat packing District. Now they’re untouchable. Sorry you got stuck in traffic! The city should provide better low income housing other than the projects. Let people take pride in their homes and neighborhoods.